According to the Austrian authorities, health-threatening situations have already occurred in several cases due to the use of counterfeit diabetes medicines. These “could have led to death without immediate medical treatment,” the Federal Criminal Police Office reported in Vienna on Monday. Previously, there was only one known case of a 31-year-old woman from Salzburg who had used a suspected counterfeit product “Ozempic” and subsequently had to be treated in a hospital with serious side effects. According to her lawyers, the woman had obtained the drug as a slimming drug from a cosmetic surgeon from Salzburg.
“Ozempic” is approved for the treatment of diabetes, but is currently also very popular as a diet drug. According to the Austrian Federal Office for Healthcare Safety (BASG), criminals are taking advantage of the current supply shortages to make money from counterfeits. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) in Amsterdam warned last week that counterfeit ‘Ozempic’ diabetes pens had emerged in the European Union and Britain. The spray aids with labels in German came from wholesalers in Austria and Germany.
The Federal Criminal Police Office in Vienna has pointed out the differences between the counterfeit and the original: the counterfeit syringe aids are therefore darker blue and have a completely transparent viewing window instead of a gray viewing window. On the counterfeit, the dosage adjustment ring can be extended, but not on the original. The fake needles are four millimeters long, the real ones are six millimeters.
The Austrian Federal Office for Healthcare Safety (BASG) reported on Monday that several patients had already required hospital treatment. It was said that the counterfeit drug likely contained insulin instead of the active ingredient semaglutide.
According to the Federal Criminal Police Office, the people in Austria who have suffered side effects so far obtained the counterfeit products from a doctor in Austria. The cases were assigned to a specific production batch. Researchers warned that more syringes from the same batch could be in circulation or in stock at other doctors.
According to her lawyers, the 31-year-old from Salzburg is only slightly overweight and does not have diabetes. Since the beginning of this year, she has been given the medicine ‘Ozempic’ three times by the doctor from Salzburg. The fourth time she was apparently sold a counterfeit version, said Lisa Holzmann of law firm Dr. Hermann Holzmann in Innsbruck.
The young woman spent a night in the hospital. “It could have ended very differently, namely with death,” Holzmann told the German news agency. The lawyer promised civil and criminal charges against the doctor and his supplier. The supplier is not a pharmacy, she said, without providing further details. (sda/dpa)
source: watson
I’m Maxine Reitz, a journalist and news writer at 24 Instant News. I specialize in health-related topics and have written hundreds of articles on the subject. My work has been featured in leading publications such as The New York Times, The Guardian, and Healthline. As an experienced professional in the industry, I have consistently demonstrated an ability to develop compelling stories that engage readers.
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